The Puffer Forum

I am just setting my 4" GSP a marine FOWLR tank. I am going to use the canister filter along with a Protein skimmer and some live rock. My question is, how quickly can I add him to the tank after set up. The Canister filter is very established in marine conditions already and the live rock is cured and established from another of my tanks. The only new stuff is the coral sand. I was hoping to get him in there asap because he is in a small quarantine tank and very unhappy...

The tank still needs to cycle. Even if the filter has some bacteria in it already its not enough to handle the load of a brand new tank. All the live rock will do is help the cycle along it doesn't make the tank ready to use just by adding it.

Really...So this is considered a brand new tank, even though all that was really changed was the sand...

Not to take anything away from brian but I'd wait until Puffer Queen or one of the SW people respond to make sure. I was under the impression that if you are using cured live rock and established filter media, you'd pretty much be cycled but then I'm not a SW expert by a long shot.

Yeah thats kind of what I thought...Not that I dont ttrust Brian, but Ive just heard so many different things. My local shop which is usually pretty good, told me it should be fine if I set it up and let it run for only a day or two, because everything except the substrate is established and also the substrate Im using (Caribsea aragonite) also helps remove wastes, ammonia, nitrites, ect.

Anyone have actual experience with this???

What size tank are you putting him in? Will there be any other fish?

IMO, if the tank is large enough and he's the only fish; you'll be fine.

Just check your water parameters daily to make sure nothing spikes.

If the filter is from a cycled tank and LR are from another tank, you should be okay... I often "cycle" tanks by adding biomax or sponges from an established tank.

However, if you are a bit on the paranoid side (like myself), I'd set it all up, wait a few days running normally (lights on a timer, all filter stuff running, etc) and then test the water. Make sure there are no traces of ammonia and/or nitrIte. Basically, make sure the LR doesn't have any die-offs.

After you add your GSP, test the water for the first couple of days and then every few days. I'd keep testing until I saw a little bit of nitrAte appear just to be on the safe side.

It is not a big tank...Only 40g. but he will be the only fish in the tank...

Live rock is a filter for Nitrates not ammonia or nitrite. So if u dont have enough bacteria to convert the ammonia,nitrite to nitrates its just like a cycle starting all over again.

I just recently did a tank upgrade.

1 GSP from a 10 gallon to a 29 gallon.

Everything was moved from my 10 gallon right over. The substrate was the same but I rinsed it for a long time after I took it out of the old tank.

I had no problems at all with any of my readings spiking.
This was with twice daily tests for 1 week. (1 in the morning, 1 at night)

You should be fine as long as the live rock is cured, and your not adding any more live stock than what you had in the previous tank.

Why would there all of a sudden not be enough bacteria to convert the ammonia to nitrites? This filter is well established and there is only one fish in the tank...The live rock can only help to keep the water conditions better, not to mention the added skimmer. Again I have never done this so I am asking but it seems like it should be fine...Dont see how it would be cycling all over again??? Basically the tank is cycled and its a matter of adding live rock and a few other new decorations which do not have die off since they are coming from my big tank...

I think you'll be just fine... I'm just very paranoid about my puffs

The only think you have to make sure is that the new tank has the same SG/PH/Temp/etc as the tank you are getting the LR from... that way nothing on the LR dies.

I'm sure the puffer will be fine by himself , but most the time new tank = new fish for 99% of the people out there. So adding a filter off an old tank and some live rock isn't gonna work in most new tanks when the bio load goes up for the new fish. Your going to get spikes in ammonia and then the bacteria has to try and catch up.